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May 20, 2013

The museum is closed on Mondays

Monday Closed
Tuesday 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Wednesday10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Thursday 10 a.m.–9 p.m.
Friday 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Sunday 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
 
Study for Improvisation V
Title:Study for Improvisation V
Artist:Vassily Kandinsky
Date:1910
Creation Place:Europe, Russia
Credit Line:Gift of Bruce B. Dayton
Image Copyright:©Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Accession Number:67.34.2
This landscape evokes Biblical stories of the Apocalypse, which foretold Christ's second coming. In the foreground, a woman in blue kneels before a tall figure with streaming golden hair, possibly Christ, while in the background two horsemen of the Apocalypse vault a fence. As a pioneer of abstract painting, Vassily Kandinsky thought art could make inner truths visible. An "improvisation," he said, was "a largely unconscious, spontaneous expression of inner character," or "non-material (i.e., spiritual) nature." Kandinsky wanted painting to function like music, using colors and forms like melodies and rhythms—abstractly—to summon emotion. Frame: Gift of Galerie Thomas, Munich, Germany.